2018 BBKA President's Prize

He accompanied his mother to a taster session for beekeeping and was hooked. His parents sought medical advice on the dangers of being stung by a bee and were reassured that the doctors thought it was a good idea for Luke to have the chance to work with bees.

Luke is very keen on building hives and equipment and is designing new ways to help beekeepers.

He also took part in the International Meeting of Young Beekeepers (IMYB) which was held in England at Marlborough College last July. Luke was selected to be the reserve for the England team and was kept busy working with one of the event referees to provide the equipment for all the international teams to work with.

BBKA President John Hendrie and BBKA Chairman Margaret Murdin travelled to his club to present the prize. Mr Hendrie said "I was delighted to present the Certificate and voucher to buy beekeeping equipment to Luke because Luke has been ill with T Cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma and had undergone three years of chemotherapy and was still able to keep and manage bees."

Mr Hendrie said Luke was really over the moon to be chosen to represent his country and be a steward at the IMYB. "He demonstrated great enthusiasm and team spirit in helping to present British Beekeeping to representatives from the rest of the world."

Luke was given a certificate and a £25 gift voucher to spend at Thorne's on more beekeeping equipment.

A PHD student at University of Plymouth is trying to recruit bee keepers to perform a survey of traits in their bees over the summer and then use genetic tests to associate those traits with lineages of honey bees. She wants to measure drone brood timings, worker brood cycle and thriftiness and will then work out their heritage.